§ Mr. MILLARasked the President of the Board of Trade whether the horse census has yet been completed; and whether he can state the number of horses, including yearlings, returned as employed for racing and pleasure purposes, respectively?
Mr. ROBERTSThe census of horses is not yet complete for the whole Kingdom, but a summary of the returns for Great Britain has been made. This shows that on 21st April about 70,000 horses of three years old and over were classified as "carriage and trap horses," about 39,000 as "riding horses and hunters over 15 hands," and about 371,000 were classified as "ponies and cobs under 15 hands." The younger horses were not classified in the same manner, so that chose kept for pleasure purposes cannot be distinguished. A few horses in the first two classes named and the majority of those in the third class were kept for trade or business purposes. The form of inquiry sent out did not provide for the separation of horses used for racing from other thoroughbred horses. The total number of horses of all ages and classes shown in the returns for Great Britain was about 2,100,000.